Fall Catch Up

Once again I have let myself get behind on the blog again...maybe this time, I will stay on top of it...

We have had a really fun fall, Annika turned 7 in the middle of October and had a fun birthday party with several of her friends.  We also had a lot of fun for Halloween.  The night was cold, but the kids were still able to get lots of candy.

For the most part I will just make this a photo bomb to show our Fall.

 

Our Halloween pumpkins.

Ms. SuperGirl, I love the attitude.

Frankie Stein and SuperGirl waiting in line for the school parade.

"Parade too long it is" according to Yoda.

Harry Potter off to save the magical world.

A friend didn't think that I would be willing to wear the tutu and bow, I guess she didn't realize that I have no shame when it's Halloween.

Our pumpkins in the light. 

The cutest Yoda ever!

Annika's birthday cake.  Silly mom forgot to order one before the party, luckily they had a cute Halloween cake ready when we got there.

Annika had a costume/movie party.  She had a lot of fun!

Showing off a few present.

Annika's new love is all things Monster High, she was on cloud 9 when she received four dolls for her birthday.

Bella has decided she is too old for naps, but after a long day she will still crash sometimes.   I thought this was particularly cute.

Johnny playing with his lightsabers.  I love that smile!

Again with the adorable smile, doesn't he make you melt.

Johnny's new favorite thing is to grab a book and climb up and read it with me.  He especially loves puppies and can even say "puppa" now, he also pants like a dog.  Today for the first time he said "kitty, meow" as well.  It is amazing how fast he is growing up.

 

James also wanted to capture him is his Star Trek shirt at least one more time before he grows up.

I came in to get him one morning and he had gotten his shirt this far off and was quite proud of it.  Since then he has managed to get all of his jammies off, what a silly boy.

Bella's hair had reached the point that is was getting really long and she was ready for her first haircut, so this is the before from the front.

The back, I will miss those curls at the bottom.  All of the girls had really cute curls until their first haircut, and those curls never come back.

During the haircut.

The haircut all done, isn't she adorable!

Showing off the ponytail that she donated to Locks of Love, she was very excited to help another little girl who didn't have any hair.

Johnny is not a big eater much of the time, so when we find something he likes it is a great day.  Here we discovered that he loves pizza, he ate almost the whole slice on his own.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

A friend told me that we were going to have some snow this week, I looked at the forecast but never saw snow on it.  I also couldn't believe with the good weather that we were having that we were going to be getting snow so soon, well I was wrong.  Today it started out cold and rainy and a few hours later we got SNOW, not the light fluffy stuff that goes away, oh no, this was the big, wet, cold, snow that is still on the lawn. 

The kids had a lotof fun with the snow though.  They invited some friends over and they made a cute snowman. 

 The girls snowman from today.  Unfortunately I didn't realize Bella wasn't looking.  

All of the friends together that built the snowman.

 

This was the last snowman that they built from last season.  It was only in April, that doesn't feel all that long ago, I don't know if I am ready to start the whole cold weather process again!

My Walking Baby

Little Johnny decided this week he was ready to take his first steps.  He has been crusing around the furniture for a few months now, but he was finally ready to let go.  Over the last week or so, he started letting go and taking the two steps between the coffee table the couch, but today he walked the first time to me about six steps. 

Later in the evening once dad was home we were able to capture his attempts on video.  So for all to enjoy, here is my baby boy learning to walk.  Way to go Johnny!

Bob, why did you have to leave me?!?

Dear Bob,

I miss you so much!  I miss your bright visage, the warm greetings that you shared with me every morning and the way you always helped me to feel connected.  I know that I am spending time with Hal now, and I hope that you aren't too jealous, but see I needed someone to keep me company, and you had to go away.  Things were just getting too hot when we were together.  I know you were doing your best, but I needed you to be more reliable.  One day, hopefully soon, you will be back in my life and we can be happy together again. 

Love,
Me

(For those of you who don't remember, Bob is my computer.  He has been having overheating problems and I had to take him in to get repaired.  I haven't been a day without Bob since I got him, he even went to the hospital with me when Johnny was born.  I was told it could take as long as six weeks until I get him back.  In the meantime I am using James' computer, but it feels like I am cheating on Bob.  Oh well, hopefully we get this fixed soon and can get back to our computing together.)

A look back

As I posted Bella's first day of preschool photos yesterday I thought it would be fun to add the other girls first day photos as well. With MacKayla we hadn't started the tradition of photos in the kitchen in front of the door, but you can still see how little she was and how much she has grown up.

MacKayla - August 2006

Annika - August 2008

Arabella - August 2011

First Day of School

Yesterday we celebrated the first day of school for the older girls and today was Arabella's first day.  They had a lot of fun and each of them loved their first days. 

MacKayla is in third grade with Mrs. Anderson, she said that her teacher is very nice and that they had fun doing math yesterday.  She said they also learned about the Golden Rule - "something about being nice to people."  MacKayla is very excited for third grade and can't wait until the book writing project so she can write her own book.

Styling!

Showing off her awesome backpack.

Annika is in first grade this year with Mrs. Jensen, and Annika said she is the best teacher ever.  She said that Mrs. Jensen was so nice and never had to be mean to her, but she did have to be mean to others because they were not being good.  Annika is very excited to be going to school all day now and getting to eat lunch at school.

What a beautiful grin.

Showing off her Monster High backpack, her newest obsession.

 Arabella started preschool this week with Mrs. Terri, and she thinks Mrs. Terri is awesome.  Bella had fun learning about school rules, learning her friends names and the color red.  She is excited to go back to school on Thursday.

In all her cheesiness.

What a cutie!

Ready for the first day.

They do love each other.

Hanging out with E at the bus stop.

All set to head off to school.

Bye Mom!

Bella's first day and more love.

Family Fun Run

Our pediatrician's office sponsors a family run, and for the first time we decided to join in.  They broke the race into heats by age group, 0-3, 4-6, 7-9...The 0-6 group ran the short race, probable about 1/4 mile.  The older kids ran a mile. 

Annika was in the 4-6 group and she was the first to go.  I waited on the sidelines for her to pass and at the half way point she was in the lead for the girls, there were a few boys ahead of her.  She ended up crossing the finish line first for the girls and probably fifth overall.  She received a trophy for first place, she was beyond jazzed!  She has been excited for this for a while and was sure that she would win, I guess all that energy in her paid off. 

Annika receiving her trophy.

Bella and Johnny's race was next.  I skipped the first half as I was watching Annika, but Johnny and I joined Bella for the second half.  Bella was in the back of the pack, but was smiling and having fun.  When I joined her I asked if she wanted to run, she said no she wanted to skippy-jump the rest, so that is what she did, a bit of a sideways skip-jump.  She had fun and ended with big smiles.  Johnny just chilled in the stroller and was content.

MacKayla's race was last and was not the happy fun of the rest of them.  MacKayla had set her sights on a trophy as well.  Well I guess she got tired really fast and when I saw her at the 1/8 mile she was in tears and the very last kid.  She was mad, especially when Annika showed off her trophy.  She ended up walking the whole thing, she did finish and not last, but she said that she did not have any fun.  Oh well, I guess in life we have to learn to take disappointment as well as success.